Miss Miller was as surprised now as the girl had been a few moments before, but she rallied much quicker than the guilty one. The truth flashed over her quick mind and she changed her query accordingly.
“It is a pity that you ever gave in to temptation. You certainly can’t blame your covert acts on May or any other being. The evil we do is absolutely our own fault, for every man is a free agent to choose what he will do. Sometimes it is fear or cowardice that drives one to do an evil deed but it is the downright criminal that obeys an evil idea or plan, knowing he is doing a thing that condemns him to the world and in his own estimation, too.”
“Well, what do you want to do about it? Did you call me over here to tell me what you thought of me? Why didn’t you do it before to-day, then I wouldn’t have come?” cried Eleanor, still defiantly.
“I hadn’t the least idea of speaking to you about May’s chest until you brought it upon yourself. I was going to mention something entirely different until you compelled me to say what I did just now.”
“And you kept this secret all to yourself this week?” cried Eleanor, looking at Miss Miller with a kindlier expression.
“Eleanor,” said the Guide, catching at that tiny hope of softening the stubborn girl, “I do not think another member in the Band dreams that you had anything to do with the missing chest, and I do not think anyone but you and I suspects the truth.”
“And you let me come with the Tribe knowing this about me?” Eleanor’s gaze dropped to the ground and she sat thinking.
According to Miss Miller’s code, when one began to think earnestly over anything, or tried introspection of one’s self, it was a symptom of recovery, even though there might be a long siege of diseased conditions before perfect health was attained. So she remained silent waiting for Eleanor to think some more.
“You’re either mighty fair to me or you’re keeping this thing quiet for fear others will hear of it and so belittle your influence with the girls,” finally declared Eleanor.
“Don’t you think you are judging unfairly, after you just said ‘I was fair’? Why should I hesitate to make you resign from our Tribe for doing a dastardly trick with May’s box? No one but you and I would ever know the truth about it, and I’m sure you wouldn’t mention it to anyone, because you are heartily ashamed of the deed. If I was afraid of others’ opinions about my Band of Girls, I would make you resign before any other tricks were perpetrated by you. But I am fair and I want to see you make good, now that you have this Woodcraft opportunity, hence I am talking to you instead of sending you away.”